Category: Ministry

The church closings in Boston are underway, and it’s getting harder to see them through. Some congregations are being transferred in their entirety to neighboring parishes, so at least they have somewhere to go — a “welcoming parish” that will take in the people and some of their church furnishings — serving at least as a commemoration of the old parish.
In contrast, members of some ethnic parishes – churches unique in the Archdiocese for their ministry to a specific nationality group – are being told: your parish’s ethnic-specific mission is completed, so you should join your geographical parish.
Of course, there is a problem with this. Regardless of whether we think separate ethnic parishes were ever a good thing at all, these communities exist. They are real groupings of the faithful with a shared history. And unlike the parishes being merged into specific neighbors, they are being told: your community is to be dissolved. This is about as far as you can get from “strengthen your brethren”.
No wonder the faithful of the Lithuanian, German, and French parishes are distressed: those communities are not experiencing the change as closing one door and opening another. For them, it’s just a closing.
If I remember right, the rebellious non-ethnic parish in Weymouth whose parishioners are occupying their old building is in an analogous position: instead of being merged into some other parish as a group, their territory has been carved up and dispersed.
I guess this can serve as a “lesson learned” on how not to set about closing parishes.

St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, NH runs a community outreach program called the “Parish Nurse Center for Wellness”. The hospital reports:

2003 Accomplishments:
(1) Continued program development including screenings, classes, health fairs, held at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness. Expanded current program offerings and increased total class enrollments 10% over prior year.
(2) Partnered with NH Technical College massage therapy students to begin offering free massage therapy services at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness.
(3) Completed Reiki training, became certified Reiki providers, began offering Reiki twice per month at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness….

Former “new age healer” Clare McGrath Merkle tells what Reiki is about and why it’s not really a good idea for Catholic hospitals to offer it.

An organization has been started to inform the Catholic faithful and clergy about options for coping with celiac disease.

A friend of mine is on vacation in Colorado right now, where he writes about his puzzling visit to a monastery with lots of activity but no monks.

Holy Trinity Church, the home of Boston’s indult Mass, is profiled in the Globe, and now the secret’s out: it’s a growing parish with a lot of young families, not a service for a shrinking bunch of seniors. We expect to be on the parish closure list when it comes out tomorrow, but I’m glad the case for keeping the church has been made publicly.